My Tog Blog About Awesome Content Creation

Cracking the Code to Viral Content and Sustained Growth on LinkedIn with Nicole Ramirez

• Tim (Mytogblog) • Season 4 • Episode 41

Share episode

In Spring 2025, my guest for this episode achieved what many content creators dream of: a post she wrote went viral on LinkedIn. But this was no accident. It was part of a content strategy that worked.

Listen in for this discussion with Nicole Ramirez, a digital marketing consultant who cracked the code on LinkedIn content creation. After being laid off from Forbes, Nicole grew her LinkedIn following from 2,400 to over 32,000 in one year.

In this episode, Nicole reveals her “7-7-7 jackpot” content strategy that led to a viral post generating 11,000+ reactions, 240+ reposts, and coverage in major media outlets like Newsweek and the Today Show. She also discusses how she set up her content and strategy to capitalize on the opportunity, enabling her to grow her following, convert followers into clients, and further her digital marketing career.   

Listen in to Hear 🎧
✅ The exact content pillar strategy behind Nicole’s viral LinkedIn posts
✅ How to balance reach-focused content with value-driven insights
✅ Networking tactics that build genuine professional relationships
✅ Why being a contributor matters more than just being a creator
✅ Practical tips for sustainable LinkedIn growth without burnout

Perfect for content creators, digital marketers, and professionals looking to build their personal brand on LinkedIn. Nicole’s journey from journalist to successful marketing consultant offers actionable insights you can implement immediately.

🔗 Connect with Nicole Ramirez:
Website & Consulting
LinkedIn

 If you found this episode valuable, please subscribe for more content about content creation tips, tools, and strategies. 

Thanks for listening! Do you have a comment or question about a topic or episode? I'd love to hear that. Feel free to contact me via Instagram or the Contact Us page, and check out our merch for content creators.

[00:00:00] Tim: As content creators, we often dream of having a post that goes viral, but knowing how to make that happen can be somewhat of a mystery. And even if one of our posts did take off, would we really know how to capitalize on it or would all that attention just evaporate leaving us right back to where we started.

[00:00:16] My guest today, Nicole Ramirez, can help us to answer this question. Within the past year, she had a post that went viral on LinkedIn generating more than 11,000 reactions, 240 reposts, and thousands of new followers. But where this really gets interesting is what Nicole was able to do after that post, using it as a springboard to get mentions in Forbes and other media add subscribers to her newsletter and further her career in digital marketing.

[00:00:43] And this episode is about the story of how she produces consistently good posts that get real traction and produce real results. Because right now, Nicole has more than 32,000 followers on LinkedIn. More than 9,000 newsletter subscribers. In addition to having a master's degree in journalism and years of experience in digital and content marketing, but she didn't start here.

[00:01:05] She got to where she is with strategic content and consistent effort over time. So now let's get into it and learn a little bit more about how she's done that.

[00:01:13] 

[00:01:18] Tim: Hi Nicole. Welcome to the show. 

[00:01:20] Nicole: Hi. Happy to be here. 

[00:01:22] Tim: Yeah, very great to see you. I saying a little bit on the introduction that you have a lot of experience with digital marketing and that also you had a viral post on LinkedIn. So I, I wonder if we could start there and you could just tell me a little bit about what happened and how it's affected your social media presence since then.

[00:01:41] Nicole: Yeah, absolutely. So I started about a year ago on LinkedIn, a little over a year ago after I got laid off from Forbes, and I had about 2000 ish followers and I wanted to start posting regularly. Yeah. By, you know, October of that year, I had my first viral post that happened. Which was about, basically about an interview I had and that I turned down because I saw a lot of red flags, which really resonated with people.

[00:02:13] And from there, my presence really took off. And so I've had quite a few, uh, posts that have taken off, but one that resonated a lot that ended up, um, on Newsweek and the Today Show actually happened to be about. Calling chicken, salmon, beach chicken, right. For my toddler. And I talked about how, uh, motherhood is just marketing and know your customer and it really just took off and ended up on every platform.

[00:02:41] So, uh, drew a lot of attention to my LinkedIn and it's been a crazy ride. But yeah, I went from about 2,400 followers to, um, about to break into 30,000 here. 

[00:02:53] Tim: Amazing. Yeah. Congratulations on that. 

[00:02:56] Nicole: Thank you. 

[00:02:57] Tim: So what do you think were the factors in the success of that post? 

[00:03:02] Nicole: Yeah, so I like to say that you know, if, if, think of it as like a casino and like the 7, 7, 7, I have these content pillars on LinkedIn.

[00:03:11] That is what I stick to when I write content. One of them is marketing expertise, the other is career personal stories, and the third is humor. Then I've got sub-pillars that I talk about, and one of them is motherhood. So you've got your three main pillars and your one, and I say that if you can get a post together that hits on.

[00:03:30] Two out of three of those pillars, you've got a great post. If you can get a post that's got all three, then you've hit your 7, 7, 7 jackpot. Yeah. And that post happened to hit all of them, including a sub-pillar, which was motherhood. So it talked about marketing and motherhood. It was a personal story.

[00:03:47] Mm-hmm. A true story that happened and it was humorous. So 

[00:03:50] Tim: yeah, 

[00:03:51] Nicole: I think that is the recipe for what seems to really resonate with my audience. 

[00:03:56] Tim: I could see that it was, uh, highly relatable. I'm sure like, uh, a lot of parents have that experience of trying to get their kids to eat things and. They don't want to.

[00:04:05] It was really, 

[00:04:05] Nicole: Really fun to read all the comments, um, because people are like, Oh, I did this to get my toddler to get dressed in the morning. Yeah, I do this to get them to eat. And it was really, really fun. Not gonna lie. Got some ideas from it, having used them in real life. I love that. 

[00:04:20] Tim: Very nice. Yeah. I feel like as a kid, I probably didn't like fish either.

[00:04:25] Nicole: No, I did not. I was very picky as a kid, so, 

[00:04:29] Tim: yeah. Well, he'll eventually discover fish and chips and there you go. I think that's where my attitude to fish changed. 

[00:04:36] Nicole: I can see that. 

[00:04:38] Tim: So you talked a little bit about the follower growth. How else did it change things for your LinkedIn profile and your social media strategy?

[00:04:47] Nicole: Yeah. So I mean, after that post I had so many people from different platforms finding me on LinkedIn, not just my LinkedIn people, and it really opened up, um, a lot of attention outside of my usual audience, right? Which is like marketing people and my usual business stuff. So people start going. Oh, I didn't know that there was like all this world on LinkedIn of like content and things like that.

[00:05:09] 'cause they came from Instagram or TikTok or Facebook. Right. Because people were screenshotting my post and putting it over there. So it actually opened up to people that really didn't know that LinkedIn is starting to become way more than a job board. Mm-hmm. But an actual social media platform. So that was really interesting to see.

[00:05:27] Tim: Yeah. And then it's interesting you mentioned about people coming over from other platforms because I think a big thing is like once you have a post that's really successful, can you retain that audience? So how did you find that? Were you able to retain them? And what factors up do you think have been important in capitalizing?

[00:05:47] I guess on, on the attention that the post got. 

[00:05:51] Nicole: Yeah, so I always say come for the humor, stay for the insights. Right? So a lot of people find me from like posts that I'll put out that are like a little humorous, usually about corporate, usually about motherhood marketing, and then when they stay is they start seeing my other posts that I'm like.

[00:06:09] Hey, here's, you know, some insights on marketing. Here's, you know, a career story that taught me a lesson. Mm-hmm. Here's a personal story that taught me a lesson in my job, and I have people that are like, oh my gosh, I found you from your beach chicken post, or whatever other post that brought them in.

[00:06:25] Mm-hmm. And then I saw that you are a marketing consultant and. X, Y, Z helped me or they become a client. They say, I went to your profile. I'm in healthcare marketing. I see you're in healthcare marketing. Can we talk? And I've actually gotten clients who have come in without any kind of knowledge about what I actually do.

[00:06:43] Yeah. 'cause they just were laughing at a post and was like, oh, she's funny. It's like follower. And then they're like. She actually knows what she's talking about as well, right? As she's not just a comedian on LinkedIn. 

[00:06:54] Tim: That's right. Yeah. It's, um, it's important. It's the difference between just getting reach and then being able to do something with that reach to, to monetize it or to build your business or, you know, build trust with an audience that you could then use for like sponsorships or.

[00:07:10] What have you. So I, I, I think important part that sometimes creators miss that they're focused all on like, um, insightful content that maybe doesn't get a lot of traction or reach based content that's getting reach and maybe even follows, but not 

[00:07:25] Nicole: gotta be a good balance. There's no next step know I've got, it's gotta be quality followers over quantity.

[00:07:31] If I was just solely putting out. Reach content where I was just making people laugh every day. A lot of those conversions wouldn't happen because people wouldn't understand that, you know, I also do this and if I was just putting out the insights content, which is something I talk to a lot of people about where, you know, they're posting and they're like, I'm not getting anywhere.

[00:07:51] Tim: Yeah. 

[00:07:52] Nicole: You know, it's not something that attracts a lot of people. They're like, oh yeah, that's great. That's helpful. And then they just scroll and move on. Right? You really want to do this good balance of showing people your true personality and like mm-hmm. These little quirks about you making people laugh, entertaining them, whatever that is.

[00:08:10] Showing a vulnerable side through personal and career stories, and then also offering them value. 

[00:08:16] Tim: Yeah, absolutely. I think it's important, um, even as a teacher. Doing The good teachers do the same thing. They share a little bit about themselves, and that class kind of engages with you more and sees you're, um, a real person and then you're also offering the value.

[00:08:31] It's like any kind of process, right? Building, uh, an audience. 

[00:08:36] Nicole: Yeah. 'cause if you think back to like being in school, you had your teachers that were really, really fun, that maybe didn't have as much value in lessons. And you're like, oh, that was my fun class. But then you look back and you're like, what did I learn from that class?

[00:08:47] And then you've got your teachers that never have like the fun, like that's right. Your AP teachers that are very dry, you're boring. Like, you know, and you're like, wow. I learned a lot about history in that class, but I knew nothing about him. And like, you know, I never once was like, oh yeah, that was a fun class.

[00:09:04] Tim: Never, never get excited about going. Yeah. I was like, I 

[00:09:06] Nicole: was never like, oh my God, I can't wait to go to third period. 

[00:09:10] Tim: Yeah. 

[00:09:11] Nicole: So I feel like a, a good teacher, as you said, like does a mix of both. They show a little bit of themselves, they tie it into the lessons and they add value. 

[00:09:20] Tim: Yeah. Yeah. Um, so could you tell us a little bit about your background?

[00:09:25] How did you get into digital marketing? 

[00:09:27] Nicole: Yeah, so I kind of fell into it accidentally. I, uh, was a journalist before I became a marketer, so I went to school for journalism. I wanted to be a magazine journalist, so I went to Penn State for journalism, went and got my master's at Point Park, ended up in newspapers for a little bit in Pittsburgh, and then was in magazines for a bit, and I was a magazine editor, but at the time it was what I call the ERA and Dawn of buzzfeed, where everything was going online.

[00:09:55] And it was the same thing for print. And so they looked to me, you know, the youngest in the room just graduated. They were like, Hey, you are young and hip. Let's put this up online. And I, I was like, okay, I don't know what I'm doing. Yeah. So they had me put all of the print materials. Onto the web, right?

[00:10:14] Which meant me building a website, starting email marketing, doing social media. So I started just having to figure out all of this stuff to reach a large audience with our content and kind of start training our writers from writing in a magazine format, to writing in an online format, which was a lot more in demand.

[00:10:34] It was right. Okay, now it's not okay. Every, you know, week we're putting out a publication. It was every day. And so. Once I started doing that, I started dabbling all this stuff. I just fell into digital marketing and I ended up loving it. And so from there, my career took off into multiple different industries and I had the opportunity to just kind of work in wherever the tide kind of took me.

[00:10:57] So I was in CPG, I was in healthcare, I was in finance, and for a while there I was in back in media. I worked as a director of marketing for Forbes before I was laid off and then got into LinkedIn. So. I think it's a great combination because I've got this content storytelling background that is a part of me, right.

[00:11:16] And then I've mixed it with my skills in being online and digital. And so I think that storytelling is such an essential part of, of marketing. Mm-hmm. That it has made me a better marketer. 

[00:11:27] Tim: Yeah, absolutely. It's, it's interesting. It's a little bit like my, uh, you know, interest in social media, uh, because, uh, having studied history, I was really into storytelling.

[00:11:37] And then I was also interested in publishing actually, and, and being a freelance writer. But there was such turmoil in the industry at that time. It was hard to see like where old career paths were disappearing, and it was hard to see where the new career paths were. I, I stuck with, um, you know, more of a, a research based, uh, career and later kind of came back to, um, digital marketing for that same reason.

[00:12:01] The, the passion for storytelling. And it is so important, like you say, to be successful as a content creator. 

[00:12:09] Nicole: Yeah. I think there, there's a lot of, you know, you've got your hard skills and your soft skills in digital marketing. Like you have to be able to. Build a good email template and run digital ads and do all this stuff, but at the end of the day, you are trying to tell the narrative of mm-hmm.

[00:12:24] The brand. And it goes into personal branding too. Yeah. Which is why, like, I love what I'm doing on LinkedIn because I'm treating myself as, I've treated every company I've worked for, for over a decade. I'm a brand, right? What story do I wanna tell? What narrative am I shaping? Mm-hmm. And how do I wanna show up online?

[00:12:41] Tim: Yeah, absolutely. Um, that's. Uh, good segue to the topic about LinkedIn. So how are you using LinkedIn with your personal brand? Are, are you on any other platforms? Are you mainly focused on LinkedIn? 

[00:12:56] Nicole: Yeah, I made the decision to just be on LinkedIn. You know, a time kind of excellence and also just the capacity of what I knew I wanted to show up as.

[00:13:06] And, um, but I encourage everyone to diversify their platforms if they feel that they can. And I have an Instagram, but it's private. That's where I share, right? With my friends and family, pictures of my family, my life, things like that. But I am not really on, I'm never been really a video person, like stick a camera in front of my face and start talking to the camera.

[00:13:26] I have a lot of respect for people who can do it. So I'm not on TikTok, but I'm a writer. Yeah. And that is where LinkedIn is bread and butter. Mm-hmm. It is truly a text first platform. Right. And I knew that that was what I wanted to lean into and I knew I could reach a lot of people by just writing as I've done for my whole career.

[00:13:46] And so I just started. Leaning in a lot to LinkedIn, and I like LinkedIn for the fact that it is avoidant of the anonymity that you get on the other platforms, right Where you know TikTok, you can get like a ton of different trolls in your comments because that's true. It's people who do not have a face or name to whatever they're saying.

[00:14:07] That's not the case on LinkedIn. A lot of people are professionals on that platform. It's all tied back to their jobs, their, their full name, things like that. So you don't get as much of that. Like just people hating just to hate. Yeah. You know, when it's a discussion and disagreement. It is a true discussion.

[00:14:25] Tim: Yeah. That, that is a nice thing about the LinkedIn platform. I it is one of the more friendly, uh, platforms I would Yeah. I would say out there. So that is, that is true. I call 

[00:14:35] Nicole: it my safer place. Yeah. Than just of the internet. 

[00:14:39] Tim: Yeah. And it's interesting too, the, um, thing you said about. Text based versus video based platforms.

[00:14:47] It is difficult, I think, as a creator to be on both. Like you almost have to pick one and stay in in that lane because crossing over, you need to figure out like how do you translate the text to video or vice versa. How do you translate the video scripts to text and all the skill? It's definitely skill takes so much time.

[00:15:06] Nicole: It's not one that I'm opposed to learning. Yeah, eventually. But as a time, you know, uh, right now, like I just, I spend more of my time writing and I need to concentrate more on other things, but it doesn't mean down the road I might not try and dabble in some TikToks and things like that. But at this time, I'm quite enjoying my time on LinkedIn.

[00:15:27] Tim: Yeah, that makes sense. Well, you're, you're doing really well on it. And, uh, I was wondering if you might share some insights into like, how. You know how to grow on LinkedIn, how, what do you think, what would you recommend for people who are looking to expand their professional network? 

[00:15:42] Nicole: Yeah, I think one of the biggest things that, um, people overlook is being a contributor, not just a creator.

[00:15:49] So it is, I spent the first six months on the platform really commenting on people networking, DMing, right. Connecting with people. I wanted to be connected with very, very purposeful. So, you know, marketing leaders and thought leaders that I really wanted to connect with, and I was showing up in their comments every single day.

[00:16:10] Right. And not just great posts, smiley face, like I was truly adding. Yes. A lot of value in there. And then it was also sparking like, you know, people would comment back and I'd be like, oh, that'd be a really great post. So it actually does lead into you being a creator Uhhuh, but you're first and foremost to grow on that platform is to be visible on people's pages.

[00:16:29] Tim: Right? 

[00:16:30] Nicole: And so that is where I would start. And then I talked a little bit earlier about content pillars, finding those things that you can talk about every single day without burning out. Mm-hmm. And you don't have to show up every day on the platform. But what are those things that. You wanna be known for?

[00:16:46] What are your friends and family and colleagues calling you about to ask you advice on Yeah. What are the things that you are passionate about that you truly could show up? And it's not just, oh, it's my job, so I'm just writing about it. Yeah. What are the things that you want to be talking about? And then when you have those, then you can figure out your audience.

[00:17:04] Like for me, I knew it was marketing expertise and personal career stories, so I knew it was likely marketers. Mm-hmm. Millennials. And it was that that was my audience. And so my audience kind of shaped itself right around what I wanted to talk about. So instead of going, okay, who do I wanna reach? And then I'll just talk about that Uhhuh, you're gonna burn out.

[00:17:23] You're not gonna be passionate about it. Find what you wanna talk about, then find your audience. 

[00:17:28] Tim: I love that. Yeah. 'cause that is, I, I think. The challenge for sustainability is like you, you really do have to enjoy it. 'cause so much goes into creating good content and, and I find too, the more I can connect it with what I'm already doing, what I'm already excited about the content more easily.

[00:17:47] You can create it a lot more easily 'cause you're drawing on your, your daily inspiration and you're not trying to research something that's separate from what you're doing in daily life. That comes 

[00:17:57] Nicole: four And you're forced to show up every day to do it. Yeah, it's just another job. That's right. You should wanna like show up as often as you want.

[00:18:05] You don't have to post every day, but if once a week, 'cause when you're showing up on the platform, it should be something you're looking forward to and sharing. Contributing. Yeah. If you're like, it's Wednesday again, I have to go post on LinkedIn, like that's not good. 

[00:18:17] Tim: Yeah. And it helps with the people that you're engaging with too.

[00:18:21] You can get excited about that 'cause you're like, okay, we're gonna talk, I'm gonna talk about, you know, things that I'm really interested in with, uh, cool people and. Not, like you say, it's the same with, uh, engagement. If you're not really passionate about the topic, just trying to find accounts to engage with, you know, for the purpose of building a, a, a niche that you think that you need for, for business.

[00:18:42] It just doesn't, I don't think it's gonna work long term. It's too 

[00:18:45] Nicole: No, and the. Community on LinkedIn is incredible. Like I have truly regulars, like I call them like I'm a bartender serving up content every day. I have regulars in my comments that like, if I, I moved recently and I was like kind of MIA for a little bit, right?

[00:19:00] And they were like, where were you? Like we missed your content. And so you build up this like repertoire with these people that are truly looking forward to your content every day. Yeah. Truly showing up in your comments every day. And it's a vice versa. I have people I look for every day. And I've truly made some friendships.

[00:19:18] I have, uh, Becca Chambers is one of the bigger, um, names on the platform. I looked up to her when I was first starting and now she's a friend of mine and we do LinkedIn lives together. It is truly just, and that was me just showing up in her comments every day and being one of her regulars and then. You know, we ended up in the DMS together and then we moved to a, to a group chat and we were like, Hey, let's take this live.

[00:19:40] Yeah. Because we talk about LinkedIn all the time and so we actually call it the group chat live and That's great. It's the, uh, her and Alison and Rossi that we're literally in a group chat talking about LinkedIn algorithm changes and things that we're seeing and supporting each other in the community, and we just started taking that to our audience.

[00:20:00] Tim: Yeah, that's great. I think that's one of the nice things about. Social media, we hear a lot sometimes about how it can be divisive, but it also brings people together in really in nice ways. So I saw you have a podcast and a consulting and coaching service in addition to the work you're doing with the healthcare sector.

[00:20:19] So I'm interested in how you balance all of that and, and what advice you'd give to other working professionals who wanna build a presence on social media. But you know, they're also, you know, obviously invested in a lot of other things at the same time. 

[00:20:33] Nicole: Yeah. I mean, it's all about, you know, prioritizing.

[00:20:37] So what, what fills your cup first and then second, and then going on top of that. I've had my podcast talk digital to me since 2018, so right when podcasts we're really starting out, comes in waves. Sometimes I'll take a six month break sometimes I'm, I'm on right now, I'm on hiatus for a little bit until mm-hmm.

[00:20:56] Um, till the new year because I'm pregnant right now and do in a next month. Congratulations. Thank you. And so right now I've got a concentration on, we just bought a house. We're doing all that stuff. So yeah. I do it kind of as a fun thing. Yeah. It is more just like when I feel like talking to people that I wanna network with and that's truly how I use the podcast.

[00:21:18] I reach out to interesting people that I'm like, I would love to just have a conversation. Yeah, let's just put this on camera that other people can hear. And I love doing it. And so a lot of it, it started as, let's talk to digital marketers that expanded into digital. Personal brand people and pretty much like CMOs and yeah, pretty much anyone I found interesting, I brought them on to just have a conversation with and it's been really wonderful.

[00:21:43] And then along with my healthcare consulting, I'm a marketing consultant, so I help out with brands and content and things like that. I also do a little bit of ghost writing for some CEOs. Some executives that wanna be on LinkedIn but don't have the time to really be writing this content. So I do a little bit of ghost writing there, and that's really, and then I coach people on finding their content pillars, finding their audience, finding that that bread and butter that they're looking for on LinkedIn, because I just became passionate about it after I started for a year.

[00:22:15] And so it's almost just like my fun. Fun side of my business. 

[00:22:20] Tim: That's good. Yeah. And um, I think that is one of the nice things about, uh, podcasting is it can give you an excuse or a way in to have those conversations with interesting people. And I like too that it is one of the more, uh, I would say one of the more forgiving formats, both podcasting and LinkedIn, where you can take a bit of a hiatus and it doesn't seem to be as negative with, um, with your audience or with the algorithms.

[00:22:44] Um. Whereas like some platforms like TikTok, if you're gone for a while, you're, you're buried again, you have to start all over. Does not 

[00:22:53] Nicole: like it. Yeah. It's, uh, it's so much fun and I, I've, you know what I said? Yeah. Like, if it starts becoming a chore Yeah. Then I, I take a step back and sometimes podcasting can be like that.

[00:23:04] Yeah. You know, when I started getting more of an audience on LinkedIn and I put out a call for guest, I had done that a year before that when I had. 3000, 4,000 followers. And I got like, I was like, oh, these 10 people wanna be on. I put out a call around 25,000 followers. That might have been a mistake. Um, I had hundreds of people and I'm like, so excited.

[00:23:25] But it was a lot of stuff Yeah. Through. And so I was like, you know what? I need to take a step back and see like what I really wanna do, how many times I really wanna be posting. Right. And so I'm very, very aware of when something becomes a little too overwhelming, a little too much of a chore, I take a step back.

[00:23:40] Tim: Yeah. That's a great point. Um, yeah. And, uh, because it can become a lot at, at different times and, and sometimes we all just need a break. Right. And, 

[00:23:50] Nicole: and it's like, it's supposed to be the fun thing. I do that. That's right. I don't want it to become another job. 

[00:23:54] Tim: Exactly. Yeah. And I always think, like with a podcast, um, like TV shows have seasons and they have breaks in between and they retain their audience.

[00:24:02] So. Exactly. I'm like, you 

[00:24:03] Nicole: just gotta wait. Like, you know. Sometimes I wanna shift and I'm like, actually, like this season I wanna do a lot of personal branding. Yeah. That's something I wanna do a lot of CMO leadership and so I kind of get to like, you know, go where I want to talk to people with it, which is really nice.

[00:24:19] Tim: Yeah, definitely. Speaking of the podcast, can um, you tell us a little bit more about the topics you have covered and I'm also interested in specifically how you manage the, the time aspect of that because. I know how much work goes into producing a podcast. Yes. 

[00:24:37] Nicole: Yeah, no, um, I've covered everything from, I've had top executives at major companies.

[00:24:44] Dominoes and NASA and everything from, you know, I had people from Forbes when I worked there on the podcast, and so a lot of the topics that I cover, I try to just say like, how did you get into your career? Um, you know, what are some things, trends that you're seeing? Pretty much, I kind of alter it to fit whatever, whoever's coming on, right.

[00:25:08] And, um, how I manage it is I outsource a lot of it. Yeah. So I have an editor and I have someone that helps me with scheduling and things like that, so I tend to just put that out because it would never get done if it didn't. Because I am not a video editor. I'm not an audio editor. I am very, very grateful for my editor.

[00:25:27] And it can be, it can be a lot when you're managing everything else. 

[00:25:32] Tim: Yeah, definitely. Uh, it's, you gotta kind of pick your, pick what you're gonna do. And I, and I, I like the idea of like, outsourcing things, especially the things that we're not as passionate about or maybe not as good at. Like, if it takes a long time, that's, that's a good signal.

[00:25:46] Yeah. I'm very aware 

[00:25:47] Nicole: of where my skills begin and end. 

[00:25:52] Tim: Um, so how do you. How does the podcast fit into the rest of what you're doing in terms of like your coaching, consulting and um, and just your personal brand, I guess. 

[00:26:03] Nicole: Yeah, there's multiple ways that I've had this podcast do some wonders for it. I've had people on that have been personal brand coaches and doing LinkedIn, like LinkedIn influencers that have been doing this for years before I started doing it, that I've learned a lot for that.

[00:26:18] I've been interviewing on the podcast and I'm sitting there taking notes on the side like, oh, I need to start doing that. That's a really good idea. I've had. Conversations that have sparked content for later. Mm-hmm. Where I'm having a conversation with, it was a VP of JP Morgan and she was talking about taking a step back after becoming a mom and this hiatus in her career where she was go, go, go, go, go.

[00:26:41] Mm-hmm. For 15 years. And she took a step back and yeah, she talked about doing this career pause and I was like, wow. Like. I should talk about that on my LinkedIn. Mm-hmm. So it sparks content and ideas. I have people who see someone they post on their LinkedIn. Yeah. That they were on my podcast and then they find me and they become a client.

[00:27:01] Yeah. So this has opened up so many doors. So it's just yet another way that I kind of get my name out there. 

[00:27:08] Tim: Yeah, and I think this is the, another part of the value of the podcast is like building those, um, connections and like deeper connections with your audience because you have more time to explore topics in depth like that and, and talk about 'em with guests.

[00:27:22] It's not just your perspective and then they help you get reach. So it's, there's just so many benefits to it and 

[00:27:30] Nicole: absolutely 

[00:27:30] Tim: something that, um, even, even with the time investment. It makes it worth it for people that are building personal brands. 

[00:27:37] Nicole: Absolutely agree. 

[00:27:40] Tim: So what's the strategy that you're pursuing to take things to the next level 

[00:27:44] Nicole: on LinkedIn or 

[00:27:46] Tim: in your business?

[00:27:47] I guess, so I'd, I'd be interested to know like where you kind of rank the different things. Is, is LinkedIn the most important lever right now or is it the podcast or, or something else? 

[00:27:57] Nicole: Yeah, I think right now LinkedIn is my main focus. Mm-hmm. It's truly where I'm bringing in a lot of my clients, A lot of visibility, um, a lot of brand partnerships.

[00:28:07] Are reaching out. There's just so much opportunity. I've had so many doors open, speaking events and invitations to things, podcast invites. Everything that I really love doing has come through this LinkedIn door. It'll be interesting to see where the next couple years take me for the platform. And like I said, I've.

[00:28:29] Become really passionate about helping people build their own personal brands and expand their LinkedIn. And so I can see myself in the next few years really leaning into more of that than my marketing consulting. But I guess we'll see where, yeah, the tide takes me in the next few years. 

[00:28:45] Tim: That's exciting.

[00:28:45] Well, I think it, you kind of answered my next question, which is what is working well? But I'm also, I'm always interested in talking with, um, fellow content creators about what, what's not working well and where, where are the challenges that you're seeing right now? 

[00:28:59] Nicole: I mean there are, um, a lot of our creators on LinkedIn, we have our qualms with some of the LinkedIn algorithm changes.

[00:29:09] Well, we talk about it openly and we're actually in talks with LinkedIn how they could better support creators. You know, they tend to be a little behind. Yeah. On the creator economy, on LinkedIn. Um, they do really well with job boards and things like that. I think that there are some algorithm changes that can really hurt creators on the platform, so we're really trying to work with them to.

[00:29:32] To help with that. And so things that are just not working on LinkedIn right now is video content, but they keep pushing it. Yeah. So it's really ironic. They'll be like video, video, video. And they like do these PR packages and then every time one of our creators puts out a LinkedIn video it flops. And so I think that's really interesting to see.

[00:29:51] Um, we'll see where everything goes within the next like yeah. Few years on what they're trying to become and if they listen to what their creators are saying, like, Hey, I know you wanna be a video platform, that's fantastic, but is that what the audience expects when they come on LinkedIn? 

[00:30:07] Tim: Yeah. I just feel it's not like the place people go to watch videos.

[00:30:11] Nicole: It's not, it's truly a text first platform. And you know, and I understand they wanna be on Instagram and a TikTok and like all this stuff. Yeah. But you know, you need to know your audience. You need to know what people are expecting from your platform. And it's truly a text first platform. People are truly going on to read and get value from that.

[00:30:30] They're not sitting and scrolling through LinkedIn. 

[00:30:33] Tim: Yeah, for sure. And I think the, um. Like the value both for the audience and, uh, creators. One of the things is you can actually add links to posts and so you can take someone to a deeper piece of content when they do find, whereas like when you're on, um, Instagram, TikTok, you know, it's very hard to get people off those platforms by design.

[00:30:53] Um, but that doesn't make 'em as great for certain types of creators that are, are trying to get, you know, build their presence elsewhere. 

[00:31:01] Nicole: Truly, people are coming to LinkedIn to find value. Mm-hmm. Whether that's get another job, get a promotion, learn something, connect with someone, network. It is truly they are opening that app, opening their desktop to find value.

[00:31:16] And that's what we need to be giving them. 

[00:31:18] Tim: Yeah. I think the other thing that's cool about LinkedIn or, or uh, interesting is that it's, it's not really a creator platform yet. Like there's not a lot of people who are content creators on it, so it kind of creates this advantage if you are like an opportunity.

[00:31:33] But it also is, like you say, that the algorithms not designed for creators so. 

[00:31:38] Nicole: No, it's kind of this double-edged, there's like a famous stat we use all the time. There's a billion people on LinkedIn, which is true, but only 1% of them Right. Are creating content on the platform. Yeah. There's a huge gap in opportunity there, which is really great.

[00:31:51] I mean, mm-hmm. A lot of people have said Brendan Gone is one of them who is a ba He's, he created the first agency for LinkedIn creators that never existed. He has said LinkedIn right now is where YouTube was in like 2010. There is just like this opportunity Yes to, you know, people started posting and they were like, oh, what are these YouTube creators doing?

[00:32:15] And like they got in early. That is where LinkedIn is right now. We are these creators that are going, Hey, we see this opportunity. LinkedIn needs to play a little catch up. Yeah. Because they're not used to the fact that like, okay, people are starting to use this as like an influencer platform. Right. And build their brand there, but they're catching up.

[00:32:34] Tim: Yeah. Yeah. And that makes it exciting too, when it's not as crowded and like you say, there's the opportunity and 

[00:32:40] Nicole: not oversaturated yet. Yes. We'll see how it goes in the next few years. But, um, I do enjoy the fact that it is not very oversaturated. Yeah. 

[00:32:49] Tim: Yeah. And I think that goes back to what you were saying earlier about eventually branching out.

[00:32:53] 'cause it is like things change so fast in the social media, digital marketing space right now. That to me is like even with the extra time it takes to have like a secondary platform that makes it worth it in some cases, just to manage that risk. Uh. It's, uh, you, you gotta have the time and kind of the, the right strategy for it so that you can easily move content from one thing to the next.

[00:33:18] Otherwise it's really, really hard. Yeah. So how can, um, people reach out if they wanna learn more about your podcast or services? 

[00:33:27] Nicole: Yeah, you can find me on my website and our digital consulting.com or of course on LinkedIn, Nicole Ray Ramirez. And yeah, just. You know, leave me a comment slide into my dms. I tell everyone I spend Saturday mornings with a cup of coffee answering my many dms, so I do respond to everyone.

[00:33:45] Nice. Just takes me a little bit. So if you email me or if you DM me on Monday, you might not hear from me from till Saturday, but I do respond to everyone. It is truly about building community for me on there. I do, at least you can even leave me a dm, like love your comment like content and I'll absolutely be like, thank you so much.

[00:34:04] It doesn't have to be something like, you know, written out crazy. But I do respond every, 

[00:34:10] Tim: that's great. Well thank you for being on the show. It's very nice talking with you today. 

[00:34:14] Nicole: Thank you so much. I appreciate you very, um, inviting me.

[00:34:17] Tim: So part of what really stood out in today's episode for me was the way in which Nicole's niche focus not only helped to promote the virality of her post and other content that she creates, but also how it really helped her to capitalize on that opportunity when it arrived. Think about how that post hit on all three key pillars that constitute Nicole's content strategy: marketing, personal career stories, and humor.

[00:34:48] And as a result of that, the traction that Nicole was getting on that post really readily translated into the rest of her larger content and business strategy, enabling her to attract new subscribers and maintain them. Enabling her to build her podcast a newsletter and just leverage that opportunity that was provided by the viral post because that alignment existed.

[00:35:15] I am applying this to my YouTube channel here is by honing in with more of a focus on creator gear and software. So looking at camera gear, tutorials and reviews, software walkthroughs, creator tips for YouTube and social media and tech, troubled shooting and quick fixes. And you can see that really aligns with my top performing content here, most of which is about tech gear or software.

[00:35:42] But it doesn't preclude doing more on photography where camera gear is a popular topic or video where I've done a mix of video tips, gear tutorials, and reviews. Now, social media strategy and YouTube tips, maybe I could approach that a little more from a software AI tools kind of lens, and that keeps everything more fully aligned.

[00:36:04] Okay, let's talk about how this works in practice. So you've got a post or a video that somebody likes and they decide that they're gonna go to your homepage and check out your channel. If what they see on your channel is not aligned with what the post was, then there's a good chance that they exit, and that sends a negative signal to the algorithm, and you're not gonna get that post or video pushed to more people. However, if they indeed like it and they start watching some of your videos, and then they realize, Hey, this is a channel that aligns with what I like, maybe they subscribe.

[00:36:41] Alternatively, they watch a few videos. Again, exit because there's confusion over what the channel is really about. That's a negative signal.

[00:36:52] Positive Signal is a subscription. Subscription. Maybe they, um, maybe once they're a subscriber, then they start to watch other subsequent videos. Perhaps even comment on the videos, like more of your videos, and then that in turn can lead to your offer.

[00:37:11] Or they can become frustrated by your channel, because you're putting out all kinds of different stuff and again, unsubscribe at some point.

[00:37:20] But it's, if we have that alignment. There's a flow through to what hopefully will be your offer one day, and that offer could take the form of affiliate sales, a sponsor link, digital products or merch, and that is what you really need in order to earn and scale your channel. Because over time you can't keep doing everything by yourself, so that some sort of revenue generating aspect of the channel becomes key, and that's why you wanna watch one of these episodes next to learn more about that.

[00:37:54] Thanks for watching. I hope you have a great day and we'll see you in the next video.